A traditional Armenian political party known for its hard line on national issues has announced its decision to pull out of the governing coalition, indicating a foreign policy difference with the current administration.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which has backed Armenia’s previous and current administrations, and currently holds 16 mandates in the country’s 131-seat National Assembly, expressed on Monday its disagreement with the current policies of President Serzh Sargsyan and his government in the continuing unprecedented dialogue with neighboring Turkey.

“We do not doubt the president’s good intentions, but we deem this process will not lead to anywhere good,” said Armen Rustamyan, a senior Dashnaktsutyun representatives.

“I don’t think that anyone would intentionally want to do harm to his homeland, nor can I imagine that the Armenian people can have authorities that will want to fail deliberately. Simply, diplomacy and political struggle in the international arena have their own subtleties and one can’t afford to lose here,” added Rustamyan.

According to the Dashnaktsutyun representative, despite Sargsyan’s assurances that negotiations are proceeding without any preconditions, Turkey won’t give up its preconditions “concealing them within terms and contractual documents.”

Dashnaktsutyun signed its latest coalition deal with three other political parties, including Sargsyan’s majority Republican Party, in conditions of a bitter internal political strife following last February’s disputed presidential election.

Rustamyan emphasized on Monday the progress that the coalition government had achieved in overcoming the consequences of the political crisis and in implementing other reforms, but described disagreement over foreign policy issues as a fundamental and insurmountable one.

“It has been our position that a universal recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, including by Turkey itself, is one of the strategic directions of the state’s national security. In this sense, it is unacceptable and condemnable for us that against the background of an anti-Armenian, condition-setting posturing of Turkish leaders, on the eve of [Armenian Genocide remembrance day] April 24, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey adopted a joint statement,” Dashnaktsutyun said in a statement, referring to the roadmap for normalizing bilateral ties announced by the top diplomats of Armenia and Turkey with Switzerland’s mediation late on April 22.

Whether Dashnaktsutyun was informed about the roadmap or not, Rustamyan said that as a coalition member the party was only informed about the existence of negotiations.

“We were aware of the process but not its details. There had been no discussions as to whether the changes stipulated by the agreement were necessary and expedient and there had been no discussions with us about the day of the signing.”

Withdrawing from the coalition, Dashnaktsutyun also renounced all its [non-elected] posts in the legislative and executive bodies.

Rustamyan said as an opposition force Dashnaktsutyun does not rule out cooperation with the hitherto sole opposition force in parliament, Heritage. But the party, according to him, sees no ideological commonalities with the opposition Armenian National Congress led by ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan.